Cheapskate Closeup Photography [COLUG]

[Jim]

Andrew Barr wrote:

> Forgive me for asking the obvious, but when I tried this I didn't get
> any magnification at all. I have a lamp with a mounted magnifying glass
> that would be perfect for this. Is there anything I'm missing??

Dunno. 

First, sticking lens in front of your camera can confuse its 
autofocusing, so you might have to defeat or lock your camera's 
autofocus feature. My camera is a cheap fixed focus (at infinity), 
so there is no feature to defeat for me. 

Second, the magnifying lens used in most lamps is big and 
not very powerful. When I want really close pictures, I'll 
hold or tape a lens in front of the camera. I often use an 
eye loupe with a 2 inch focal length. I have another lens 
with an even shorter focal length. Lighting becomes the 
dominant problem them, as the camera is so close to the 
field, that the camera blocks the light. 

I bought 5 cheap bare scratched lens at a flea market. 
Here are some pictures taken through two of those lens. 

   http://www.colug.net/~jep/images/closeups/

I bought a set of five eye loupes for $4 at Harbor Freight 
last week. I haven't tried them with the camera yet.